Improving the profession from the bottom up

Monday 16 January 2017

CFA UK represents the views of the investment profession to the public and government so that the environment in which we work is informed by our thinking. One of our key roles is to lead the profession in serving our clients well – following the mission "promoting the highest standards of ethics, education and professional excellence”.

Supporting these two aims at the moment is our Value of the Investment Profession programme, which is a critical part of making sure we are prepared for the important debates taking place about the role of the finance industry, and our work in particular.

In 2016 we undertook a significant operation to report on our stakeholders’ views, outlining in broad terms the challenges that our profession faces. We are now embarking on the next stage – coming up with solutions to those challenges that we can put forward to the authorities and policymakers as the best way of making sure the investment industry works for its clients and society as a whole.

This task is even more important as we are under scrutiny, and rightly so. We have to explain what we do, why and where we do well, and how we can do better. The Financial Conduct Authority’s recent interim report shows that this debate is progressing at an advanced pace, and we want to make sure that we are on the front foot in taking action.

One of the key principles of our Society and the Institute is that our members decide how we function as a profession. The working groups that we have established to feed into this process rely on ordinary CFA UK members – both senior and junior, and from many different roles and backgrounds – who are providing their expertise free of charge. We are very grateful for their help, and we hope this demonstrates the thought and commitment that is already going into this process.

Our striving to improve the profession never ends, and we will be looking for more volunteers in coming months to help us with this interesting and rewarding work. In the meantime please do keep up to date with our progress – we will be sending out a monthly newsletter to keep you informed of how work is going on this project.